Photography is fascinating because it is supposed to be a ‘factual’ depiction of reality. Thus, to somehow ‘fuck’ with a photograph seems to be immoral. Why? It loses its ‘authenticity’.

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The RICOH GR III is easily easily easily the best camera ever made [thus far] for street photography.

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All photography is good photography, but I still think street photography is the best:

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Photography and nothing but photography!

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Reduce friction in your life in order to maximize what you truly desire to do.

Simple ideas:

1. Wear the same outfit everyday: All black everything. All merino wool everything. Same pair of shoes everyday. One less thing to worry about. (Steve Jobs same turtleneck, and Mark Z with same grey shirt).
2. One camera, one lens: RICOH GR III, ERIC KIM NECK STRAP MARK II and call it a day.
3. Simpler is better. Use the absolute simples tool for the task possible. For blogging, just use your phone or iPad. For writing, just use IA WRITER and Markdown to keep your ideas and words flowing.
4. JPEG: Simplify your photographic workflow. Just shoot JPEG, to speed up and expedite your photographic workflow. JPEG > RAW.
5. At the gym, stick to simple workouts. Deadlift, squat, dumbbell press, chin-ups.
6. For cooking, keep it simple. I find that eggs are the ultimate food. Super cheap to buy, easy to store, and cook super fast. I usually will eat 10-12 whole eggs (yes, with the yolks too), everyday at around 8pm.

A life without photography or art isn’t a life worth living.

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When I don’t walk around all day, leave the house all day, or have the opportunity to engage in any physical activity– my brain, mind, and soul gets strange. But the second I leave the house, walk around the block a few times, go lift weights at the gym, commute and hang out somewhere, my mental issues dissipate.

Which makes me wonder:

What if much of our “mental” issues were rooted in the physiological (pertaining to our physical body)?

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Composition and boxes are really interesting to me.

Is there an “ideal” way to compose a box, series of boxes, or a rectangle?

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Practical ideas:

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What does it mean to become a ‘full stack visual artist’?

1. You own the means of production
2. You own the means of distribution/sharing/business
3. You know how to manage the marketing, technical aspects, and all the art aspects.

Essentially you become a fully-integrated pillar in which you can do everything yourself, without being dependent on anyone else!

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A good incentive to giving constructive critiques on arsbeta.com

The more critiques you give to others, the better you understand your own photos, and gain better understanding how you can improve in YOUR OWN photography.

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Mode — type, style.

We got airplane mode. Why not photo mode?

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Currently participating in Y Combinator’s “Startup School” for ARSBETA.COM and enjoying this idea:

With your startup, what kind of really big problem are you trying to solve?

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As kids we are told ‘sharing is caring, it can be fun!’

But as adults– what is the pragmatic upside of sharing? Why share at all? How do we benefit from sharing?

My basic idea is this:

Share from your overflowing bounty of epicness. Don’t “self-sacrifice” in order to share.

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I think what we desire is this:

Optimal simplicity in order to maximize what is important to us.

Simplify our photo equipment (RICOH GR III in JPEG x iPad x Apple Photos) to quickly and effectively look through our photos, to quickly select the photos we consider meaningful to us, and to quickly share the photos with others (on your own website/blog).

Simplify our lifestyle and daily schedule. Less time commuting, more time creating.

Simpler foods— less indigestion, more strengthening for our bodies (simple meats and eggs). Simple coffee (all black), and just water. Maximal strength, extreme frugality in sustaining ourselves.

Lightness is the closest thing to godliness.

The lighter, simpler, and more intuitive your camera, the better. In praise of RICOH GR III and iPhone.

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I think some of us artists strive to make artworks which are ‘eternal’, and ‘timeless’.

But it is my belief that nothing should last forever. If our artworks were eternal and never decayed and were never forgotten– future generations probably wouldn’t have the opportunity to create new things.

Wouldn’t it be horrible if there was a future in which no photographer was allowed to create art-works better than Henri Cartier-Bresson? Or better than Picasso? Or better than the great artists of the past?

Kind of sounds like a silly question, but I think very relevant in today’s world:

Why think?

What is ‘thinking’? What is the value of ‘thinking’?

Do we like to think? Do you like to think? Do you want to think more or less in your life?

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I just gave a talk at Google on the topic of becoming ‘Creative Everyday’ [pdf download link to Slides], and wanted to change the definition of “creativity” from the notion of “artistic innovation” to the propensity to create lots of things.

Therefore as a photographer, you are more ‘creative’ if you create more (new) photos!

Some ideas:

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As a photographer, make fun compositions for the sake of it!

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With muscles to make your muscles bigger/stronger, they call it ‘hypertrophy‘:

Ancient Greek ὑπέρ (hupér, “over, excessive”) + τροφή (trophḗ, “nourishment”).

• Hyper (over, excessive) = hupeir (beyond)
• trophe: nourishment, food.

Applied to photography and art–

How do we become bigger/stronger/more as artists?

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A thought:

There is no ultimate ‘truth’.

Furthermore, to strive to search for ‘truth’ seems to be a waste of time.

Another issue:

We can strive to discover deeper self-knowledge about ourselves, and perhaps more ‘truthiness’ about the world. But all of this “truth” is subjective.

Then what are we to do with our lives?

A simpler goal: strive to make beautiful artworks. To determine whether something is beautiful in our eyes is far superior than to search for “truth”.

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This is the problem —

When we think of “creative photography”, we typically mean to say “artistically innovative”.

But who is the judge whether a certain photograph is “artistically innovative”? And is artistic innovation in photography what we desire? Or is it better to just make good, deep, and meaningful photos and disregard “artistic innovation” in our photography?

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RICOH GR III is sharp as a mofo:

No anti aliasing filter, JPEG— super epic. As my friend Jun says, “physics don’t lie” (bigger sensor generally = better image quality/aesthetics for photos).

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Personal photography: shooting photos to spark more joy in your own life.

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How to become a hyper-human?

We want hyper-cars. Why not become a hyper-human?

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What I think we are striving towards as photographers and visual artists is this:

Create images [art works] which are beautiful.

Now, how do we do this?

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My goal —

More people to become self-employed, in order to allow more individuals to do great things. Best way to move humanity forward?

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Use ‘Gaussian Blur’ to better determine your compositions in photography:

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Shoot and create art works with visual clay, beautiful people around you all day.

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Street photography as a way of life. As a way of seeing the world, interacting with the world, and making art works out of people!

HAPTIC: Creative tools to empower you >

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Simple street photography assignments to get you going:

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21mm is one of the focal lengths which have been over-looked by photographers [for a very long time].

I will make the case that perhaps there is still a lot of unpaved photographic/composition grounds for 21mm [as a focal length].

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The simple formula for photography, art, and more:

Make stuff and share it.

Don’t have anywhere to share it? Upload your photos to arsbeta.com

Simple idea:

You must shoot A LOT [quantity] in order to make GOOD PHOTOS [quality].

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We must assert ourselves as artists, not just ‘photographers’. To simply think of yourself as only a photographer is quite demeaning towards yourself.

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A thought:

What if the best thing you could do for yourself and humanity is to create the most epic art-works you are capable of?

For example, don’t think of yourself as a photographer. Think of yourself as an artist. As an artist, it seems that our only duty in life is to create the most epic art-works we are capable of.

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When I first started working my first 9-5 job, I desired deeply to become self-employed.

Why? I desired freedom! To show up everyday at an office at an arbitrary time, to leave everyday at an arbitrary time, and to do this from Monday-Friday seemed hyper-bizarre to me.

I thought to myself: We are living in the most modern and technological society. Why do we still need to show up to an office and put in a 40+ hour work-week?

I desired to become self-employed to escape this technological slavery. But what happens once you are self-employed, no longer need to wake up by a certain time, no longer need to attend meetings, no longer need to sleep at a certain time, no longer need to “work” during the day if you don’t want to?

This is my grand thought:

To become self-employed as a necessary step or a pre-requisite to attempt to do and create really great things.

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Originally sent on ERIC KIM NEWSLETTER:

Monochrome tips:

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The best learning is self-learning. Some practical ideas for you:

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The deepest black. Jet black. Phantom black.

Perhaps this is my ideal aesthetic.

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Shoot More Randomly!

Why shooting randomly will help improve your photography:

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Photography as the ultimate hybrid and synthesis between art and technology.

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My ideals of composition in street photography:

How to make more ambitious images which are more elegant, stronger, yet simpler?

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To improve, we usually think it means to make progress from Point A to Point B.

Questions on my mind:

1. What does it mean to “improve” your photography or art?
2. Is “improvement” even something desirable?
3. If so, how can we indeed “improve” our photography and visual artistry?

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Perhaps we can thrive and achieve our apex of strength if we embrace the notion of the “greatest possible economy”?

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If your passion is photography and you desire to monetize your passion and if you have the opportunity to get a free education, I encourage you to go to business school (instead of photography or art school).

But this is a huge thing:

Never go to school if you’re going to go into debt.

If you can do work-study, get scholarships, do it. Never ever ever go into debt, even for the most seemingly “great” opportunities. Debt is the devil; perhaps even worse.

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Something I’m thinking a lot about entrepreneurship:

Why scale?

Or in other words:

Why is scaling up seen as desirable?

And also– are there hidden downsides of having a really big scale?

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The best life is one ripe with photography.

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Delete and stop using social media; build your own platform instead!

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A philosophy from my buddy Nietzsche:

How could you live your life in accordance as if you were to live it indefinitely, on loop, and to think this was the most sublime thing in existence?

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A practical thought:

If you want to invest in a new creative tool, better to buy a new RICOH GR III (instead of a new iPhone).

This is my rationale:

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A new way of thinking about life:

I will optimize my life to live in accordance to myself. To optimize my life which is best for me. To optimize my life to not put unnecessary stress on myself (only positive stress, ‘eustress‘). To live more like a child– playfully, to challenge myself, and to live life to the fullest.

To ignore conventional wisdom. To discover the wisdom which works best for myself.

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Practical ideas:

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I want to go beyond the notion of ‘creativity’ as this “innate ability to make novel connections and to think differently”, into thinking about creativity as frequency and power of creating new art-works.

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Beyond content marketing. Let us strive to create substantive ‘substance’ (not “content”).

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Currently enrolled for ARSBETA.COM in Y Combinator’s “Startup School”, and thinking of Kevin Hale’s question for Week 1 lecture:

What is your unfair advantage?

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A simple principle in life:

Share your dopeness (awesomeness) with others.

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Through art, we desire to exert (ex+press) our inner artistic power.

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An idea inspired by Cindy:

Is the purpose of photography to remember or to forget?

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Once you’ve retired (no longer need to do toilsome labor in order to pay your rent and groceries), what is the “optimal” (best) way to live your life?

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You make photos, you make illustrations, you make videos, you make music. You derive artistic stimulus from all sources: from listening to music, from films, from dance, from exercise, from philosophy — from anything!

To develop to the fullest extent– grow more variegated. Consider a tree. You have a singular trunk, but your roots grow deeper into the soil, and your branches continue to multiply, and grow higher and higher (while growing wider).

Strive to master MANY artistic domains in life!

Furthermore, strive to engage all forms of knowledge. Science, art, humanities– it is all good!

All arts which inspire and stimulate you are good!

And above all; focus on artistic creation, and your own artistic productivity!

ERIC

Also another idea:

Spend more time looking at your own photos instead of watching movies or Netflix?

As visual artists, perhaps we can only maximally thrive if we are continually making new images, every day– perhaps all-day?

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If you desire more freedom in your life, strive to become more frugal.

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The first version of PHOTOGRAPHY COMPOSITION MANUAL (download as PDF).

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What is the motive force which induces us to photograph?

Some ideas:

1. Desire to immortalize a moment. Great joy and thanksgiving towards reality.
2. Desire to create visual art works. Photography as faster and more efficient than painting or drawing.
3. Desire to play. Photography as fun visual gymnastics if shapes, colors, forms, compositions. To photograph is like playing a musical instrument.
4. Desire to share our perspective and viewpoint with others. To signal and educate others what we consider beautiful. The photographer as the value judge of beauty.